The VooDUDES are likely to appear at least once this summer in Flemington. This VooDUDE is known only as "Andy B!"

FLEMINGTON — After a lean three-show schedule last year, Music on Main Street will be restored to seven Thursday evening summer concerts this season, Mayor Erica Edwards announced at the Borough Council meeting on Monday, April 23. Last year the event was scaled back to three shows because of budgetary constraints.

The mayor will also see if the Flemington-Raritan Parks and Recreation Committee would be interested in hiring the popular rock band, the VooDUDES, to perform at the Third of July fireworks display near the intermediate school.

For Music on Main Street, a section of the street is closed to vehicular traffic, tables and chairs are set up, and local eateries sell food while a band plays.

Borough resident Lois Stewart suggested that Music on Main Street concerts be held on Friday nights so they don’t compete with the county’s Music Under the Stars concerts in Readington Township.

The mayor explained that the bands would cost more for Friday night gigs.

Stewart suggested that the borough emulate the county and advertise for free performers.

Although Edwards said she would be willing to audition a volunteer act, “experience has shown that to have a successful series, it should be driven by quality, not cost.”

The first concert will be May 31, the same evening of the Girls on the Run 5K race. Councilwoman Michelle Oberst noted that a section of Main Street is usually closed at 5 p.m. so the evening’s band can set up, but that would conflict with the race.

The race is open to men, women and children and more than 1,500 runners are expected. Main Street will be closed at 5:45, the runners will begin lining up at 6 p.m. on Main Street and the race starts at 6:30, and ends at about 7. Music on Main concerts are from 7 to 10 p.m.

It was suggested that the band could set up elsewhere that evening or Music on Main Street could be moved to another night.

David Rucki, executive director of the Flemington Business Improvement District, said that Music on Main Street was an attraction that helped the race organizers decide to move its 5K to Flemington.

Mayor Edwards said she would hate to lose “the synergy” of having both events on the same evening, and said if the band couldn’t set up in the street, the Court Street park might be the best place, although the park would also be used as race headquarters.

No decision was made that night.

The rest of the Music on Main Street concerts are scheduled for alternating Thursdays — June 14 and 28, July 12 and 26 and Aug. 9 and 23.

One of the bands likely to be signed up for July is the VooDUDES, whose website describes their style as “New Orleans funk, blues, boogie-woogie and honky-tonk” plus “Zydeco, Southern soul and Caribbean party music.”

Edwards, who described the band as “a community favorite,” said they had expressed an interest in a Fourth of July weekend engagement and she thought perhaps the Flemington-Raritan Parks and Recreation Committee might be interested in hiring them to sing before the Third of July fireworks.

Councilman Marc Hain said that for the past three years a group of college boys has performed before the fireworks. The group, called DARK based on the initials of its members, sings at the end of the field near the school. Hain said he hadn’t heard whether they’d be back this year.

Edwards said she wasn’t pressuring Parks and Rec to hire the VooDUDES, just offering an idea. Hain said he would talk to parks and rec director Sal Randazzese about it.